Compound steam-engine



(N0 Madel.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

E. HILL.

COMPOUND STEAM ENGINE.

No. 566,580. Patented Aug. 25, 1896.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 (No Model.)

B. HILL.

COMPOUND STEAM ENGINE.

Patented Aug. 25, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT Fries,

EBENEZER HILL, OF SOUTH NORW'ALK, CONNECTICUT.

COMPOUND STEAM-ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 566,580, dated August 25,1896.

Application filed January 6, 1892- To a whom it may can earn.-

Be it known that I, EBENEZER HILL, of South Norwalk, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Compound Steam-Engines; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to he a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent,

Figure 1, a plan view of so much of a compound engine as is necessary for the illustration of the invention, and in Fig. 2 a side View of the same.

This invention relates to an improvement in that class of steam-engines commonly called compound engines, and in which the cylinders are arranged in direct longitudinal line with each other and so as to operate through a single piston-rod, and in which the main shaft is arranged between the steamcylinder and the cross-head, a well-known style of engine, rnown as back-action engines, used to a considerable extent in marine service, such, for example, as shown in the patent granted to me December 12, 1%03, No. 510,685.

The object of the invention is the arrangement of the steam-chest of the two cylinders with relation to each other, whereby the valve connections may be considerably simplified.

The invention consists in the arrangement of two steam-chests upon the same side of both cylinders, and in planes substantially parallel with the plane of the main shaft of the engine, the steam-chest of the high-pressure cylinder principally at one side of the longitudinal central line of the cylinder and the steam-chest of the low-pressure cylinder principally upon the opposite side of the same longitudinal central line, and whereby the valve-rod of the low-pressure cylinder may pass directly from the steam-chest toward the eccentric and one side of the steam-chest of the high-pressure cylinder, and as more fully hereinafter described.

A represents the high-pressure cylinder, and B the 1ow-pressure cylinder, arranged in direct longitudinal line with each other.

0 represents the piston-rod, as seen in Fig. 2,

seen No, 417,135. (No model.)

which is in central line with and so as to work through both cylinders, as usual in this class of engines. The piston-rod extends to the cross-head in the usual manner, those connections not shown, as they are immaterial to the invention.

D represents the main shaft, which, as usual in this class of engines, is arranged in bearings E E between the main cylinder and the cross-head, and to the outer ends of which crank-shafts are applied and connections made with the cross-heads. These crosshead connections are not illustrated, as they are immaterial to the invention.

F represents the steam-chest of the highpressure cylinder,and G represents the steamchest of the low-pressure cylinder, and the broken line a; :1; represents the central line of the two cylinders. The steam-chest F of the high-pressure cylinder is arn nged so far to one side of said central line and the steamchest G of the low-pressure cylinder so far to the opposite side of the same central line as to leave a direct clear space from the valverod stufiing-box II of the steam-chest G toward the main-shaft, and so that the valverod I of the low-pressure cylinder G may work over the high-pressure cylinder at one side of the steam-chest F, said rod I being connected to its eccentric J on the main shaft in a well-known manner.

K represents the steam-inlet for the highpressure cylinder F, and L represents the exhaust from the low-pressure cylinder.

M represents the connection from the exhaust of the high-pressure cylinder to the in let of the low pressure cyilinder. This is substantially the usual connection.

N represents the valve-rod for operating the principal valve of the high-pressure cylinder, and is connected to a rocker-arm O, which is operated by an eccentric P on the main shaft 1), the strap of said eccentric having an arm Q extending radially therefrom and hung to the rocker-arm O.

B represents the valve-rod of the cut-oh Valve of the high-pressure cylinder, and it is connected to a second arm S, extending from the strap of the same eccentric P. The valvegear shown is no part of the present invention. The steam-chests of the two cylinders have been spoken of as being located prinoipally on opposite sides of a vertical plane passing through both cylinders. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that the center lines of the said steam-chests are located on opposite sides of the said plane.

By the arrangement of the two steam-chests upon opposite sides of the same central line, as described, and making the exhaust from the respective chests upon the corresponding sides of the said central line the exhaustpassage for both cylinders is considerably shortened over what it would he were the steam-chests centrally arranged and in line with each other. By this arrangement of the two stea1nchests the valves of the two cylthe engine is therefore very considerably of simplified by this opposite arrangement of the two steam-chests.

I claim-- In a compound steam-engine, the combination with a high-pressure cylinder, of a lowpressure cylinder located in line therewith, a steam-chest for the high-pressure cylinder situated on the top of the same, having its center line located to one side of a Vertical plane passing through the longitudinal center of both of the said cylinders, and having its valve-seat located in a horizontal plane, a steam-chest for the low-pressure cylinder situated on top of the same, having its center line located on the opposite side of the said vertical plane from the center line or the high-pressure steam-chest, and having its valve located in a horizontal plane, a main shaft, a valve-rod extending between the high-pressure cylinder and the said shaft. a valve-rod passing over the high-pressure cylinder and to one side of the steam-chest thereof, and forming 'a direct connection between the low-pressure cylinder and the shaft, and an exhaust'pipe lea-ding out of one side of the steam-chest of the higl1-pressure cylinder and into the corresponding side of the low-pressure cylinder.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EBENEZER HILL.

Vitnesses:

JAooB M. LAYTON, J E. SLATER. 

